Welcome home, Julie! (At Biltmore?!)

Julie experienced an amazing week with my parents and had the opportunity to learn some sewing basics. I love the fact that my mom is (again) trying to pass down this talent through the generations. Thankfully, Julie has a great appreciation for style and fashion and the life dream of becoming a fashion designer!

We met my parents in Asheville (at the Biltmore themed McDonald's) and spent the day exploring parts of the Biltmore Estate. There is so much to see and do we will have to go back and do the rest! My parents bought us 12-month passes for almost half price so we are already planning another trip in December to see the Christmas decorations and hopefully again in the spring to see the beautiful gardens!

It may have only been 5 days but Julie was very missed by all. I don't know what we are going to do when our kiddos are all grown and out of the house!

Thank you to my parents for being so amazing and continuously blessing us! We love you!

Weekend with Nana and Donnie's Ordination

This weekend was a whirlwind but, oh, so amazing!

My mom arrived Friday evening and the kids were ecstatic. We were able to have birthday time for the "4 Js" Saturday and they all opened their presents from Nana & Papa. I was shocked when we realized she hadn't been here to visit in almost a year! Thankfully we've been to visit them a few times.

Sunday we spent the day in Chapel Hill/Durham area and it was exhausting but such a sweet time together. We were blessed with an amazing worship service at our new church, enjoyed a scrumptious lunch at Chili's (thanks to Nana!), drove around for a bit checking out neighborhoods and apartment complexes, then explored the Duke Gardens.

Duke Gardens is amazing! It's a picture-perfect kind of place to enjoy feeding the ducks at a beautiful pond, letting the kids run free through grassy, open space and throwing a ball or frisbee, and admiring the beautiful vegetation throughout the gardens. We had such a great time!

We ended our day attending the Ordination to the Sacred Order of Deacons at All Saints Church where our close friend, Donnie McDaniel, was ordained. We were honored to witness such an amazing event and excited for what is to come for him, and the others ordained, in their ministries.

_Moose Tracks_ (Theological opining)

I've had a friendship with Donnie McDaniel since the fall of '99. Someone once said that it is very difficult to count the number of friendships on one hand. Wow, is that so true. Despite the current social networking phenomenon (like Facebook) happening in our world today, "friends" are not that easy to make. Now we may have many acquaintances, but friends are a different story. When Christ was fulfilling his ministry, he had many so-called "followers," but there were twelve that he considered to be close to, and of those 12, Scripture seems to portray that Jesus had an even closer friendship with 3: Peter, James, and John. Indeed, one could argue that maybe the Lord didn't really have friends, at least when one looks at how they left him during his time of accusation and crucifixion. Nevertheless, Jesus called them his friends. And after Pentecost, those friends (apostles, except for Judas Iscariot) were loyal to Jesus until their death proclaiming him as Lord and Messiah.

I have several friends and am thankful for their friendship. Indeed, it would be very difficult to deal with the struggles, temptations, and victories in life without friendship. Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, points out that true happiness (of the wholesome account not necessarily pleasure seeking) comes from a virtuous friendship. A virtuous friendship is one where two people have a friendship based on the virtue that each one possesses in order to always promote the good of the other. In other words, it is friendship that is unconditional. One is not using the other to attain anything for their own selfish gain. Aristotle even claims that "Anyone who is to be happy, then, must have excellent friends."

We weep with our friends. We rejoice with our friends. Last night on Sep. 18, 2011, I rejoiced with my friend as he was ordained to the diaconate in the Anglican Mission in America. Donnie has a servant's heart and desires to serve the Church through many ways. He will do well since God has enabled him and is making him into a virtuous, godly man, even conforming him to the image of Christ. What is amazing, is that as friends, we have noticed how God is taking us along the same track, the same journey so to speak. It's hard to believe that 12 years ago we would be where we are today. Donnie is an excellent friend. I thank my God for the friendship that I have with Donnie McDaniel. He has sharpened me as I hope I have sharpened him and it is great to see how God is blessing and using him for the kingdom. Value the friendships that you make (outside of Facebook, as well as through Facebook) and see how God uses your relationships with others to make you more a virtuous and godly person.

Still Running,
Moose

How Did We Get Here?

Pat and I have known each other for about 12 years, been married since 2000, have 4 children, and moved nine times bouncing around six different cities in the Carolinas. So how DID we get here?

Well, as our history has shown, "here" is revealing our belief that home truly is where the heart is. Our journey started out as newlyweds living with my parents in Rock Hill, SC who quickly had one then two beautiful children. In December 2002, we hastily packed our little family up and moved to Wake Forest, NC for Pat to embark on an education to prepare him for ministry. We didn't last long and after three short months we were spiritually and financially strapped and we ran to the first open door: a tiny little non-denominational church in a tiny little town in SC. We served there for a year, saw God start working, and that door was slammed in our face so we skirted across the county line and served in a little bit bigger southern baptist church in a little bit bigger town.

God richly rewarded our ministry there, grew the church, and gifted us with many opportunities to grow. Two years after arriving there, God drew us to minister to a church split just over the county line again so off we went and God birthed a new little southern baptist church and another beautiful addition to our family. It wasn't long before we realized that, though we were serving God, we were skirting around his ever-present call to education so, after a year serving and watching God grow this church plant, we packed back up and headed back to Wake Forest, NC for Pat to continue his then half-completed education.

Fast-forward from then in 2007 to now and God has brought us, with much support, through spiritual, emotional, and financial devastation. Jobs came and went for both of us, we have been blessed by one last beautiful addition, our marriage withstood much stress and strain from finances, relational distance, and more, but God saw us through it all and has restored us to be steadfast, humble, faithful servants of God and each other.

By the grace of God, Pat is on track to graduate in December with his Bachelor of Arts in Christian Studies with a minor in History. Praise the Lord. So now we have the fun job of discerning what's next and we're excited.

_Moose Tracks_

Wayne Stiles wrote a little devotional book entitled, "Going Places With God." Well, as noted above, my family and I have gone places--a lot of places. Often, people will ask me, "Pat, why have you moved so much?" Honestly, I don't have an answer that satisfies many who ask the question. But the answer is and always has been, "wherever the Lord leads, we'll go." Some of my friends that I have attended College @ Southeastern with are serving right now all over the world: Turkey, Malaysia, France, China, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Czech Republic just to name a few. These friends of mine have gone all over the world to serve God because they believe that He has called them to go and they obey the call on their lives to serve.

Though there has been continual change in our lives, there has been one constant: The Lord God is with us and He has never forsaken us. You could say that the presence of God has been the fuel to our fire to stay faithful to Christ and His gospel and to keep following wherever the Lord leads. Through all of the moving, there has been doubt, anger, frustration, worry, fear, marital struggles, financial struggles, and physical struggles, etc. Yet, there has been new friendships made, victories over sin, miracles witnessed, lives changed for the glory of God, and a peace that surpasses all our comprehension. God has indeed been and still is with us! For that, we rejoice evermore. So, even after I graduate in December, my answer will still be, "Wherever the Lord leads, we'll go." It's worth being in His presence. Amen.

Noodle Brain gets explained

Click here for elaboration on my "noodle brain" reference... hilarious!

What is in a name?

We've recently begun attending a new church and the rector's wife and I had a few brief moments to get to know each other before she introduced me to some other newcomers. In her introduction of me, she described the last 12 years of my life more succinctly and creatively than I would have by simply saying this: that I have followed my husband, Pat, on a wild goose chase for God.

Stunningly, in those brief moments, she understood the chaos (that I would never trade for the world!) that has been my life. But, most importantly, she understood why.

Through this blog, I hope to enlighten my readers and followers on why I will forever be on a wild goose chase through my life, marriage, parenting, friendships, and who knows what else. Everything I do, I do for the glory of God. And I dedicate this blog to Him.

I must confess though, I have always been skeptical of personally blogging, with my greatest objection as not being able to find a creative name for it. Thanks to the wit of that rector's wife and my noodle-brain (long story), I tweaked my wild goose chasing life to acknowledge my husband's role in all this and as he was nicknamed Moose many years ago coined my own special phrase: wild Moose chase! Enjoy and watch for "Moose Tracks!"